In the Leizhou Peninsula, the southernmost part of the mainland of the motherland, the scenery is beautiful and the humanities are magnificent, but more than 100 years ago, the people here faced the aggression of the great powers and fought with the belief of "one inch of mountains and rivers and one inch of gold".
In 1925, Mr. Wen Yiduo, who studied in the United States, wrote the famous "Song of the Seven Sons", which listed seven places that were still occupied by the great powers, expressing the fist heart of overseas naked children.
Among them, "Guangzhou Bay" was forcibly occupied by the French invaders and signed a 99-year lease agreement, but it was taken back in 1945.
The present and past of Guangzhou Bay
In the chikan district of zhanjiang city, there is a cunjin park, which preserves the heroic deeds of the zhanjiang people's struggle against the law, and is known as "cunjin haoqi".
"An inch of rivers and mountains and an inch of gold"
The modern poet Guo Moruo mentions such a poem here.
Today's Zhanjiang City, as one of the first coastal open cities of reform and opening up, the first batch of "Belt and Road" maritime cooperation fulcrum cities, and the top 100 cities in the country's comprehensive strength, is gradually becoming the center of the two Guangzhou areas.
In 2022, Zhanjiang ranked 82nd among the "Top 100 Dynamic Cities in China". But such a vibrant, fast-growing city was only a leased land in France more than 100 years ago.
In 1899, the Qing government lost power and humiliated the country, succumbed to the imperialist powers, and signed an agreement with France to lease the "Canton Bay" area to France for 99 years.
The "Canton Bay" area became a colony of the French invaders, ruled by the French colonists for 44 years, and then divided up by Japan, and Japan and France jointly occupied the "Canton Bay".
In 1945, Japan announced its surrender, and Guangzhou Bay, which had been occupied by foreign colonists for 46 years, was reclaimed by China, and the original guangzhou bay was divided into a city and renamed "Zhanjiang City".
Chinese people who heroically resisted the law
At the end of the nineteenth century, in the frenzy of the great powers dividing up China, the Qing government was weak and incompetent, and under the threat of the invaders, leased Guangzhou Bay to the French.
Since then, the Guangzhou Bay area (now Zhanjiang City) has erupted one after another in a large-scale armed struggle against the French forced lease of Guangzhou Bay, with the peasants as the main force, local gentry and patriots from all walks of life participating.
In the territory of Suixi County, the suixi people swore a blood oath, organized regimental training, fought heroically, and held on to every inch of land, dealing a heavy blow to the invaders.
The 20-month heroic struggle forced the French invaders to retreat a full 30 miles from the western route of the "Canton Bay Lease" from the vicinity of Suixi County.
This battle, like the sale of cigarettes in Humen and the resistance to the British in Sanyuanli, was one of the three major struggles in modern times in which the Chinese people rose up to resist and Guangdong was patriotic and anti-imperialist.
In 1899, while the suixi people were preparing to actively resist the invading French invaders, diplomatic negotiations between China and France were being held in Beijing and Paris.
Guangxu Emperor
The Viceroy of Liangguang and the Governor of Guangdong gave a speech to the Guangxu Emperor about the French's bullying incursion into mainland territory, and pointed out the atrocities committed by the French invaders.
"Without giving a note to the magistrate, he landed and occupied the fort, erected a legislative flag, intended to occupy it permanently, and indulged the law-abiding soldiers into the village to harass them, wounded and killed dozens of villagers, and burned dozens of houses."
"The villages near Haitou Village are unbearable, gathering thousands of people, and the crowd is raging, and there are several provocations." A statement details the crimes of the French aggressors.
However, he then made humiliating concessions on the demarcation of the border, "but leased Guangzhou Bay as a place for mooring ships and hoarding coal", intending to take a step back and settle the dispute.
However, then the French side "threatened the Qing Dynasty to accept by virtue of its military power", sent 4 steamships and more than a thousand soldiers to land from Chikan, Mentou, Huangpo and other places, posted notices, and checked the grain books.
This open plundering of sovereignty and shameless acts of aggression aroused the anger of the Suixi people and met with resolute resistance from the patriotic Suixi people.
Encouraged by patriotic enthusiasm, the broad masses of the people in Chikan Village were in an unprecedented mood of struggle, and they launched a night raid of 80 people at the barracks of the French soldiers stationed in gaoling.
In the middle of the night, 80 patriotic people who were not afraid of life and death, armed with gunpowder guns, approached the French military camp under the cover of night, but when they were ready to act, they were found by the military dogs in the French military camp.
The French opened fire, wounding several people hidden in the shadows, and seeing that the enemy was on the defensive and that the sneak attack was difficult to succeed, they withdrew, but this was only the beginning of the struggle between the Suixi people and the French invaders.
In order to organize a confrontation against the French invaders, the people of Suixi formed a volunteer army, which formed a certain scale, and soon after the resistance began, they encountered difficulties.
Traitors and traitors betrayed the news of the volunteer army to the French army, which thought it was just a ragtag group of people and organized a siege and suppression of the volunteer army.
The French first released rumors that they were about to attack Mazhang, attracting the volunteer army to support Mazhang, and then carry out a sneak attack. However, it was recognized by the volunteer army and foiled the French conspiracy, and in this battle, the French army killed and wounded dozens of people.
The resistance of the Volunteer Army caused the French a great headache, so more French warships and soldiers were transferred to Suixi to eliminate the Volunteer Army.
The French army first bombarded Mazhang County with artillery, and then sent a small number of people as a feint, with most of the soldiers as the main force, to attack Huangluo Village, in an attempt to eliminate the volunteer army in Huangluo Village first.
At this time, Huang Luo's volunteer army was harvesting in the field, heard about the French attack, and rushed to deal with it, coupled with the large number of French troops, artillery cover, and heavy casualties.
Under the bombardment of the French artillery, the volunteers in other places were difficult to support, and eventually Huang Luo was captured by the French army, and the men, women and children in the village all retreated, and none of them were captured by the French army.
The struggle of the Suixi people against the French aggressors is a rich and colorful stroke in the history of the Chinese people's resistance to foreign aggression, and it is also a symbol of the spirit of the Chinese people to always persist in resisting the foreign invaders.
Compared with the struggle of the Chinese people against the armed aggression of the French invaders, the Qing government continued to make shameful concessions.
Li
Under the dual pressure of French diplomacy and military affairs, Qing Prime Minister Yamen, in his negotiations with France, frequently showed weakness and sent Su Yuanchun, the traitorous traitor to Guangxi, to serve as a negotiator, and Li Hongzhang, a traitor to the country, replaced him as the governor of Liangguang.
In the negotiations, Su Yuanchun sold the East China Sea islands to France, and in the face of the strong attitude of the French, the Qing government repeatedly backed down in order to calm the incident, until the entire Guangzhou Bay area was leased to France.
When the French army surrounded Huang Luo, the Qing troops stationed in gaozhou town, faced with the plea for help, sent troops slowly and delayed again and again. By the time they arrived late, Huang Luo had been reduced to a sea of fire.
Qing Dynasty soldiers
On the night that Huangluo Village was captured, the traitor Su Yuanchun signed the "Guangzhou Bay Lease" with the French. The treaty stipulates that Canton Bay is leased to France for a period of 99 years, and France can build forts in the concession and garrison troops as a defense.
The people of Suixi, who fought bravely, still could not change the outcome of Guangzhou Bay being dedicated to the French by the Qing government. But the blood of the Suixi people was not in vain.
The struggle of the Suixi people forced the French to reduce the scope of the lease by most, from the initial radius of 100 miles to 30 miles.
"Every inch of land must be contested" is the highest appraisal of the suixi people, and every inch of land belongs to the territory of the Chinese, and cannot be allowed to be seized by foreign invaders.
A humiliating history of the French Concession
On November 16, 1899, China and France signed the Sino-French Treaty on the Mutual Signing of the Canton Bay Concession, which collectively referred to the area within the concession as "Canton Bay" lease and France for 99 years.
In fact, in the beginning, "Guangzhou Bay" was not called this name.
As early as 1701, in order to avoid the wind and waves, the French warship "White Watt" flowed into the sea area of Wuchuan County, the capital of Gaozhou at that time, and looked at this sea area that was very suitable for mooring large warships.
After the captain of the "White Watt" returned to France, he proposed to the French government to occupy this land for himself, which led to the French army invading "Canton Bay" and forcibly occupying it.
White Watts
In the reports of French warships, the area was called "KTW", which translates to "Canton Bay", which means vast land in the water.
But this was limited to the fact that the French army had just arrived here, and with the division of the concession, the area expanded to 2,000 square kilometers, including land and sea, and it was obviously unreasonable to call it "continent" again.
In the "Guangzhou Bay Lending Treaty" signed between China and France, the name "Guangzhou Bay" was used, representing the transformation from "continent" to "state", representing the French colonists to make it part of the administrative division.
After the forcible occupation of Canton Bay and the signing of the Lend-Lease Agreement, the French invaders renamed it "White Watt City", which means to commemorate the first French warship to discover this place.
The geographical location of the "White Watt City" was so important that france attached great importance to it, and began to build a local office, determined to rule Canton Bay.
In order to make up for the small size of the leased land, the French followed the British lease of Hong Kong and Germany to lease Jiaozhou Bay, opening Guangzhou Bay as a free trade port.
Once it became a free trade port, trade in Guangzhou Bay would be developed, and the French also established a system that "all goods through Guangzhou Bay are not taxed to China, but Chinese goods entering and leaving Guangzhou Bay are subject to taxation."
The Qing government also did not set up relevant institutions in the boundary of Guangzhou Bay, which led to the development of overseas trade in Guangzhou Bay, and also made the smuggling of Guangzhou Bay rampant, becoming a smuggling center along the southern coast of China.
In order to further improve the level of trade in Guangzhou Bay, the French built the Diao chau Lighthouse, the White Watt City Pier and the Shawan Pier, as well as many important basic public facilities.
Tongzhou Lighthouse
These facilities and systems attracted merchants from all over the world to trade in Guangzhou Bay, and Guangzhou Bay prospered for a time, on the other hand, the prosperity of smuggling trade also affected the interests of the Chinese fleet.
Among them, the greatest impact was that opium smuggling and arms smuggling in Guangzhou Bay seriously impacted the trade economy of the Qing government's two-Guangzhou region and further accelerated the disintegration of the Qing Dynasty.
With the demise of the Qing government, the existence of leased land became a disgrace in the hearts of Chinese, and the call for the recovery of Guangzhou Bay was increasingly loud.
The convening of the Washington Conference was a favorable opportunity for China to reclaim the leased land of Guangzhou Bay, and for the first time France publicly promised to return Guangzhou Bay.
In 1921, as an invitee, China had great expectations of the Washington Conference. But the essence of the conference was not as China expected, and the imperialist powers were only redividing the Chinese colonies.
France's weakening national strength made China see the possibility of recovering Guangzhou Bay, but the result of the matter still did not go as expected.
Group photo of the delegates
Just as the so-called "national strength is high status", the country is strong, it will have an international status, although France's national strength has weakened, but at this time China is still in a situation of division and turmoil, still not being taken into account.
The French, who refused to return it, built Guangzhou Bay into an "illegal place", opened casinos, indulged in drug trade, and developed the pornography industry, just to make high tax profits from it.
With the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Guangzhou Bay became a holy place free from the infestation of war, a large number of goods and materials entered and exited the interior from Guangzhou Bay, and from 1938 to 1940, the total trade volume of Guangzhou Bay reached 10 million, playing an important role in the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The Japanese army entered Canton Bay
In 1943, the Japanese army invaded Guangzhou Bay, the French could not resist, Guangzhou Bay became a Japanese colony, the Japanese army set their sights on this port that can travel to and from large warships.
France was forced to sign the Agreement on the Joint Defense of Canton Bay with Japan, and two years later, Japan was defeated and Canton Bay was taken back by the Chinese government.
Although the French were unwilling to take back Guangzhou Bay, and even once clamored for "the same victorious power" and demanded to continue occupying Guangzhou Bay, they were rejected by China.
Fall of France
The strength of the country is the capital of diplomacy. France has even invaded and occupied its own country by Germany, and its strength is far inferior to that of China, which has just defeated the Japanese invaders, so no one cares about France's claims.
In 1945, China and France signed the Treaty between the National Government of the Republic of China and the Provisional Government of France on the Transfer of The Lease of Guangzhou Bay in Chongqing, and Guangzhou Bay was officially returned to China.
Four days later, the Guangdong provincial government incorporated Guangzhou Bay into the municipality and renamed it "Zhanjiang City". In 1949, Zhanjiang Was Liberated.
The vicissitudes of wind and rain and the mighty atmosphere last forever
The Chinese people's struggle to resist the law is an anti-imperialist movement of a spontaneous nature of the people that broke out under the unprecedentedly serious situation of China's national crisis, and is of far-reaching significance to China's anti-imperialist struggle.
At the moment when the imperialist powers were dividing up China one after another, the people of Suixi rose up in resistance, defended their dignity with their own blood and lives, and struck a blow at the momentum of the French invaders' occupation of China.
In order to commemorate this anti-French struggle, the People's Government of Guangdong Province has successively announced 5 sites and memorial buildings as cultural relics protection units for future generations to visit.
Guangzhou Bay in the vicissitudes of wind and rain has now become Zhanjiang City, but the grand righteousness of the Suixi people to defend their homeland and defend their homeland is still in the hearts of the people of Zhanjiang.
The statue of the anti-French hero in the Cunjinqiao Park is awe-inspiring and mighty.
The seven characters of "one inch of rivers and mountains and one inch of gold" are shining golden light, which is the oath of the zhanjiang people to defend the motherland's rivers and mountains to the death, and also symbolizes the heroic and fearless spirit of the zhanjiang people to shine forever.